


Beneath the waves

by SilverMaxwell (Endless_beginnings)



Category: The Beatles (Band)
Genre: Cuddles, Drowning, Hurt/Comfort, Near Death Experiences, i geuss, its ringo loving hours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:55:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21596494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endless_beginnings/pseuds/SilverMaxwell
Summary: The Beatles make it to their beach hotel in the Bahamas and decide to sneak out for a swim.it doesn't go great for Ringo
Relationships: George Harrison & John Lennon & Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr
Comments: 2
Kudos: 56





	Beneath the waves

**Author's Note:**

> (warnings? some description of drowning and a bit of the after-effect)  
> this is a collab fic!

Usually, the time difference would mean messed up sleep schedules for the boys, making them either extremely tired or wide awake at inconvenient times (and the odd sleep schedules typically led to an excessive amount of yawning too).

Unfortunately for Eppy, tonight wasn’t one of those nights.

They had left Liverpool at 2 am and arrived at the Bahamas at 10 pm and the four were now wide awake due to a rather long nap. Four energetic Beatles never led to anything good, Eppy knew that for sure.

“We aren’t _children_ , Eppy.” John rolled his eyes as he placed a now empty bottle of soda beside him.

“I beg to differ,” Their manager sighed, “You four still have a press conference early tomorrow, so at least _try_ to rest.”

“Fine, we’ll _try_ ,” John shot back, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked away from their manager, turning his attention to his bandmates instead.

“Well, goodnight then, boys.” Eppy gave extra emphasis on ‘goodnight’ as he left them alone…

They behaved for about half an hour at most.

it all started with Paul simply staring out the wide-open window overlooking the beach.

“Rather quiet out there isn’t it?” Paul commented from his place on a recliner. The other three turned to look just so they could try and see it too.

The ocean was rather still looking, the waves lapped at the sandy shore, the full moon above lighting up the area beautifully.

“We packed swim shorts, right?” George piped up as a grin began to form on John’s lips, a mischievous look glinting in his eyes as he glanced around at his friends. He was clearly up for a swim.

 _“Now?”_ Paul asked, looking mildly amused at the thought of a late-night swim.

“The entire place is empty! No one knows we’re even here yet, it’s a perfect time to go.” John was already going through his luggage in search of his swim trunks, he hardly even hesitated. Paul didn’t need much convincing either, if John was doing it then he was most definitely going to go along as well, he’d follow John anywhere.

Ringo took another look out the window and decided he may as well tag along too, it had been a while since he’d gone to the beach anyway. George shrugged and quickly began to look for his own pair, a swim didn’t sound half bad, especially when he was as awake as he was.

They took some towels from the hotel bathroom and snuck their way out past Brian and Mal’s hotel room which was just a door down (when the door closed _loudly_ behind them they had frozen and tried their hardest not to laugh. John briefly thought back to the earlier argument and _maybe_ Eppy was right).

They managed to get out of the hotel without anyone really noticing them, except for the man at the front desk, but they just ignored the weird look that he gave them and continued on their quest to get to the beach. They quickly ran down the sidewalk and through a small trail between the sandhills and the palm trees. Ringo soon began to regret his decision of not bringing any shoes as he stepped on a sharp rock, wincing at the pain.

The towels are haphazardly thrown to the side and John was the first one to reach the water, immediately recoiling as soon as his feet broke through the surface.

“Bloody hell, it’s _freezing!_ ”

It took a while (and a lot of yelling), but it wasn’t long before they were all waist-deep in the cold water of the ocean. Well…Most of them were waist-deep anyway, in Ringo’s case it was a little bit above his waist…Short little man.

At some point, John splashed water at George, who retaliated by tackling the older male into the water with a loud laugh that filled the air. As time passed they found themselves slowly walking into deeper areas, the water starting to splash just above their elbows.  
The water didn’t feel as cold as before, as they were soon completely drenched.

Ringo rubbed some salt out of his eye, having been thrown by John and Paul further out just moments before. When he opened his eyes again, he realized just how far they made it out into the water, blinking slowly at the sight.  
The shore was a good distance away, he turned and saw that the others had water up to their shoulders by that point.

He was caught off guard by a small wave suddenly hitting him in the face and he spat out some of the salty water, automatically shaking his head to try and rid himself of the water. Ringo turned towards the others who were currently talking amongst themselves and he asked if they thought that the waves were getting stronger.

Well, he _tried_ to ask them anyway.

He took a step further and before he even realized what was happening, he was falling.  
Ringo barely had time to suck in a breath as he was suddenly submerged, unable to feel the wet sand beneath his feet and he didn’t know whether or not if he should try and find it again or focus on keeping his head above water. He flailed around a bit as he made it to the surface, his arms reaching out to nothing and just barely managing to break through for another breath.

But he panicked when he realized he was drifting farther away from the others.  
Ringo immediately opened his mouth to call for them, to _scream_ …

But all he did was inhale a mouthful of water as the unforgiving ocean dragged him back down.

He stayed down longer than the first time, no matter how much he tried to keep his head above the water. The water suddenly felt cold again, numbing almost as it tried to drag him down further away from his friends, further away from _air_. He tried his hardest not to panic more than he already was but that was starting to become a difficult feat, especially seeing as his friends hadn’t even noticed his disappearance.

He broke the surface and drew in a sharp gasp of air, trying to draw as much in before he was inevitably pulled back down again. He caught a glimpse of his bandmates in the distance and his heart sank at how far away they seemed to be. He managed to get out a raspy shout for help, hoping - no, _needed_ for his bandmates to hear it.

And then, he was under the water once more.  
But, right before it happened, he saw George turn and he met the guitarist’s gaze for just a moment, watching his eyes widen in a mixture of horror and realization before Ringo went beneath the surface yet again, accidentally getting another mouthful of water in the process.

_“Ringo!”_

The desperate scream from George was muffled by the amount of water rushing in Ringo’s ears, but it was still a scream nonetheless and that meant he _still_ heard it. He could’ve sworn he heard a loud swear or two from John, but even if he had, Ringo paid it no mind. His main focus was on the fact that his lungs were begging for oxygen, but he couldn’t satisfy the request. If he tried to take a breath, all he’d get would be water, water that would fill his lungs and drown him with his friends only being a couple of feet away at most.

He wanted to keep fighting, he honestly needed to keep on fighting…But he had nothing left in him. All the struggling and getting nowhere, it exhausted him. He just couldn’t do it.  
The constant lack of air was making him dizzy. Ringo’s vision was going black as if to match the dark waters around him.  
He…He had to give up…As much as he hated to admit it.

And he would’ve done exactly that…If it hadn’t been for a pair of strong arms wrapping tightly around him and hauling him up. Another pair joined in and he finally managed to get his head above water again, taking deep breaths to try and get his breathing back to normal,  
but this time he wasn’t going back down.  
As soon as Ringo’s knees hit the shore his entire body was racked by coughs.  
Everything became a blur.  
There was yelling, they were talking to him.  
All he could focus on was breathing.  
Someone was pounding his back with the heel of their hand in time with the hard coughs.  
The combination of coughing and the beating seemed to trigger something, as Ringo suddenly gagged and hurled the water he had been forced to swallow earlier.

When time finally slowed down Ringo could see the tears that blurred his vision, every time he breathed in deeply his back ached, the strong hand now rubbing soft circles into his back as he tried to catch his breath again.

George hadn’t even noticed.  
_No one_ had noticed.  
They’d gotten distracted by John and Paul restarting a small argument from earlier, they’d thought nothing of the splashing.  
Until George had finally turned to see Ringo disappear into the dark water.  
He had yelled, John had cursed.

It was like the water worked against him as he desperately headed over to the sinking drummer. George immediately grabbed the drummer in some strange side hug and pulled him close, John went to the drummer’s other side as soon as George had gotten close enough to the others. They had both dragged Ringo to shore while Paul trudged through the water close behind.  
“Should we get someone?” Paul stood close by watching Ringo enter into a loud coughing fit while John pounded his back in an attempt to help.  
“Just-” George began as he stood crouched beside Ringo, racking his brain for ideas “Get Eppy to call a doctor?”  
Deeming it as the only course of action and not wanting to feel useless Paul gave one last worried glance at Ringo and ran at breakneck speed back to the hotel.  
After expelling the last of the water from his body Ringo simply slumped on his side like a ragdoll, now utterly exhausted.  
“You alright there, lad?” John moved the wet strands of hair blocking his eyes to get a better look at the drummer.  
Ringo moved so that he was laying on his back, hundreds of bright stars looked down at him.  
“Yeah, I’m…” Ringo began, pausing to take in a large, shaky breath.  
“… tired”  
A moment of silence passed, George moved to sit on his knees while John sat and crossed his legs. Ringo remained on his sore back.  
“Where’d Paul go off too?” Ringo asked rather quietly.  
“He went to fetch Eppy” George answered in the same low volume.

As if on cue a voice yelled from across the beach.  
“Boys!”  
Three heads turned in unison to see Brian marching his way towards them, both Mal and Paul in tow.  
Eppy somehow looked furious and concerned simultaneously, though the intimidating aura lessened when he slipped forward on the sand.

They all had gotten an earful from Eppy on their way back.  
“This is why you shouldn’t leave your rooms in the middle of the night” Eppy muttered, a hand on Ringo’s shoulder in an attempt to keep the younger close by “the press conference is in literal hours and you lads go almost drown Ritchie”  
“I’m fine” Ringo argued back, tightening the towel around him as he shivered from the air conditioning.  
“He ‘s fine” John parrots back, his hands were pulling at the towel around his shoulders.  
“We saved him didn’t we? The Lad should be thanking us, we’re his heroes”

“If I knew you’d get such a big head outta this I would have stayed in the water, maybe then you’d fit through the door to your room” Ringo bit back with a smile. though a rather dark joke, it at least told the others Ringo was recovering from the events that had transpired well enough.

Upon entering the room he shared with George, Ringo sat himself down in the middle of the hotel’s couch, still wrapped in the towel. The others moved around him, towels were thrown onto a stool (to which Eppy tutted at) and despite the late hour and exhaustion that plagued him, Ringo had no intention of sleeping.  
“I’d recommend taking a shower, get the salt and sand off you boys,” Eppy said as he gave an unamused look at Paul who was dusting the sand off his leg and onto the carpet.  
Ringo scrunched up his nose at the suggestion  
The last thing Ringo wanted at the moment was to be under a stream of water.  
“I think Ringo’s had enough water for the day” George had taken notice of their drummers reaction, Ringo gave George an almost sad little smile.  
Eppy simply nodded in acknowledgment while he used his right hand to rub the sleep out of his eyes. “You boys are going to give me grey hairs”

  
John noticeably rolled his eyes from behind their manager.

The little gathering in the hotel room had lasted for a solid 10 minutes longer, after assuring themselves that Ringo was alright Mal and Eppy left for their room.  
(“Get some sleep, _I mean it this time_ ” Eppy had told them).

The room was silent, Ringo had ditched his towel in favor of an actual blanket, he was working up the energy to change out of his swimsuit like the others had and abandon the warmth of the couch.  
Paul’s rather loud yawn finally broke the silence, causing Ringo to realize just how worn out the others seemed. George looked ready to doze off from where he stood leaning across the counter while John continuously ran a hand through his hair, fighting back a yawn of his own.  
“Y’know you lads can just leave right?” all three turned to their drummer who had yet to move from his spot.  
“And what about you?” Paul countered back “you look absolutely knackered, Y’know”  
While Ringo’s eyes did feel heavy, the willingness to sleep evaded him. He shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t want too”  
John threw himself down onto the couch, causing Ringo to bounce in place.

“I don’t want to either,” He said despite the clear exhaustion in his face.  
Soon the others had joined Ringo onto the couch, Paul had taken the other end while George had squished himself between Ringo and John.  
“There’s a chair right there, George” John had hissed as he was stabbed in the ribs by George’s bony elbow, George paid him no mind.  
Despite the fact they were rather squished, it proved to be a nice source of warmth against the chill that had settled upon the drummer.  
Paul had turned a single lamp off as he claimed it was far too bright, setting the room in a softer glow from the remaining lamp across the room.  
They spent the next half hour chatting amongst themselves, of simple things like the tour, the places they were headed to and all agreeing upon the fact that press conferences were boring.

  
When Eppy found them the next morning he almost couldn’t believe what he saw.  
John sat with his arms crossed as his head rested on the crook of George’s neck.  
George, in turn, had his cheek on the top of John’s head.  
Paul had sunken down further in his spot during the night, his head resting where the armrest met the backrest. Ringo had somehow remained wrapped in his blanket but was curled under Paul’s arm and into his side.  
Brian stood by the doorway, thinking for a moment.  
He grabbed the door handle and went to close the door again.  
He’d give them ten more minutes, he decided.  
Brian closed the door gently, it gave a soft click in response.

  
Only ten minutes though, they _did_ have a schedule to follow.


End file.
